Perfume of the Day

[slater]

E04 all day. it opens kind of overly animalic and messy. after the first 30 minutes it’s a really beautiful perfume, the animalics smell really present and supportive, giving it strength and oomph. to me it smells primarily of florals and light sweet ouds, very purple and sweet along the lines iris ghalia and jamaican ambergris. maybe more structured than iris ghalia but less than JA.

i can tell there’s incense grade oud and resinous materials supporting but to me it smells nothing like cola- there’s no lift and it is a very floral perfume with some resin and oud to support, no effervescence though or deeper rooty/woody qualities i would expect from a cola. i would love a good cola perfume if anyone has recommendations!

but this is nonetheless a phenomenal floral perfume

 

[mobyus]

Fuse Kuala Lumpur - Blvck Label, Moth to Flame

A really underrated oud house that pushes out great ouds and perfumes.

This one smells of peppery bergamot and sweet orange 🍊. Along with gaiac wood and selected Malaysian ouds. It never fails to disappoint me. Wearing this in the office now. I regularly leave 3 perfumes for my colleagues and I to wear when needed. This always gets compliments.

 

[stumpt]

Zakir Gafur - Choc o Civet

This was one of this year's Ramadan specials, offered for a couple days only.

Slightly fruity roses, resinous dry vanilla, chocolatey musk, leathery facets, animalic sweetness, thick dark resinous oud. A delicious but not cloying, dense but light composition. I really enjoy this one for its evolution, varying facets, and good performance. It has a very interesting potency that hits you first with chocolate & soft animalic musky tones, before making space for the rosy oudy base. This is very much not a rose-oud, or a rose-musk, this is what I what categorize as a choco-musk perfume first, complemented by rose, oud, resin.

This is not pissy, sweaty, or musty at all. The civet, musk, and castoreum blend seamlessly to create a multifaceted ball of animalic tones: sweet, soft, warm, musky, skin, sensual. This perfume helped me recognize that musk is really something I love.

I like to put notes list as they get lost. I remember when I first wanted to discover artisanals. There was no info out there for so much. I hope to change that even a little.

Notes for this one
Hindi Damascena
Bulgarian Rose
Black Currant
Opoponax
Vanilla Absolute
Cacao
Sultani Musk
Castoreum
Sultani Civet Paste
Katsuri Musk
Hindi Oud
Sultani Cambodi

 

[aoudgauze]

The Night by Malle. Yes, I am aware it’s supposed to get hot in NYC today. But I love it regardless!

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I just wore The Night in this heatwave we're getting! The heat helps tame down some of the more scratchy notes I pick up in the base.

 

[Shiningrobes]

Frederic Malle - Portrait of a Lady

Oof, this is beautiful. I’ve had to keep reading the ingredients because my nose keeps contradicting what’s in here. I get labdanum, ambrette masquerading as musk, orris and rose. But the rose is the only one in here. Is it the black currant that’s throwing me? No trace of the patchouli, sandalwood or frankincense. I know this is a well loved classic so there’s little I can bring to the discussion except to say how much this hits me where it matters most. I could easily see this layered under or over so many other things. Heavy scents like this are perfect for me in summer. I just want a really skanky fermented Cambodi oud smeared up my forearms, this and a glass of icy Brazilian limeade.

 

[Shiningrobes]

Frederic Malle - Rose + Cuir

A double dose of Frederic Malle today. I wore this out in the heat, which turned into a sudden downpour and now I’m back in the ultra humid house. This is spectacularly odd, queer, bizarre? I get caraway seed, celery seed, carrot greens. Like lying in a cool alpine meadow with the smell of crushed herbs rising into the air. The crisp green centers of white flowers nodding in the breeze. The rose didn’t hit me until I was almost home and then only in subtle wafts. Tight buds just beginning to open. And now that I’ve sweated off the volatiles I smell a hint of vegetal leather. This is so odd that I can’t completely dismiss it. It’s intriguing in the best way, but it isn’t Portrait of a Lady. For that I think I might be willing to do a little time in jail if it got me a big bottle.

Edit: Ok I was wrong, the rose has now thoroughly bloomed. It’s a weird one but beautiful nonetheless. Bruised, half- fermented rose petals pushed through a roughly woven sieve of plant stalks. What I was calling caraway seed is coriander EO straight up.

 

[stumpt]

Zakir gafur - autograph 2026

dark shamama melange dances with heavy resinous oud
wrapped in musky leather
dark roses bloom beneath incense wisps

 

[slater]

bulgakov and jasmine yuzu by teone reinthal

jasmine yuzu is an interesting one. the jasmine is not sweet and only slightly indolic, it’s very well balanced by what i assume are the basenotes, mitti and sandalwood but it the mid and base notes are thick and it creates a fresh leather car smell to my nose that the jasmine sits on top of. it’s very mature and definitely masculine to me. a very unique take on jasmine and not what i would reach for when i want a jasmine fragrance as it’s just generally floral to my nose and doesn’t contain the unique aspects of jasmine but it is a very beautiful full bodied masculine perfume nonetheless that has a lot of depth and the yuzu sitting up top keeps it oscillating between darker and lighter notes. a very nice composition

bulgakov is truly one of the best “classics done today with high quality naturals” category, many do well it but WOW. the anise/licorice note is powerul and deep, i get absinthe greenness sitting with anise, birch tar smokiness, tobacco richness and oud weight holding it all together in the base. it smells so distinctly russian and it projects well with lots of depth and complexity. 10/10

 

[mobyus]

Henry Jacques - Berceau De Ma Joie

A lovely floral-woody perfume. Notes of orange, rose, and oud. Very nice but not one of the best HJs.

 

[SteveE]

@Al Shareef Oudh Al Misk

So perfectly balanced - vintage musk. Very crowd friendly… powdery soft.

 

[rOudOlf]

@Al Shareef Oudh Al Misk

So perfectly balanced - vintage musk. Very crowd friendly… powdery soft.

This spray is such a balanced presentation of musk. I’ve tried other musk sprays that are just too strong for me, let alone those around me. Al-Misk by Shareef is the perfect balance between musk and florals—two ingredients that can easily get out of hand.

 

[rudymeister]

Ebrahim for Oud - Hazrat. A beautiful blend of sandwood, vetiver and rose. Good for day 3 of medical school orientation

 

[PerfumeAl]

Agar Aura - Blu - Probably the best summer composition focussing on oud that I have come across. Fresh, uplifting, oudy. Stunning.

 

[The Scent Guru]

Going out n about wearing Musk Lave from Areej.

 

[rudymeister]

Xerjoff Naxos. Got my medical school white coat!

 

[slater]

love creates death - absinthe minded

this house uses mainly naturals, the scent notes are sparse as this is a vaulted release: Absinthe minded- sour green apple/ mind wiping absinthe/ creamy massoia bark and deer musk base

i was pretty impressed by this, out the gate it’s definitely sour and sharp and green with a toothy depth that i wonder if it has oakmoss along with deer musk. not too sweet, it smooths out over the wear. no note of anise/licorice at all though which i strongly associate with absinthe. nonetheless a nice sharp and green gentlemanly perfume

 

[SteveE]

Ensar Oud - Funkberry

Simple light balanced fruity pebbles. One of my wife’s favorites on me - it may not be highbrow but we both love it.

 

[Oudamberlove]

Habzoud Nangarhar Rose Oil

I’m wearing it as a perfume today,
I was craving florals.

 

[mobyus]

Henry Jacques - Merveilleuse de HJ

Oriental chypre. Notes are: Bergamot, ylang ylang, oriental rose, clover, and patchouli. in my top 5 HJs easily.

 

[Alamande]

Manzar Oudh Qahir

I’m not really a spray guy, and I’ve stood corrected on here several times getting basic facts wrong about perfume sprays, so bear with me.

The ingredients/notes listed for this are:

QAHIR (PERFUME 70% CONCENTRATION) - It has ingredients of
Oud Kalakassi, oud Meghalaya, oud Cambodi, srilankan oud, Rose, cinnamon, bergamot, Sichuan pepper, leading into a rich heart of patchouli and woody sweet

So we have some of his best ouds in here and a clear effort to make something strong as hell - قاهر literally means ‘strong/powerful’ in Arabic - while still being wearable and composed.

I am still very, very new to smelling real oud diluted in alcohol. It’s probably top of my list of things to experiment with, but I just never can be bothered to buy the pipettes, the vials, the alcohol, etc. But based on what little I have smelled to date, the effect seems to be to accentuate fruit notes in the material and create a rum/brandy/arrack/sherried-whisky impression.

So it is here. The material is still mostly liquid when it comes out of the nozzle. One squirt is more than plenty. It barely atomises. The opening is like a medley of fine, aged spirits, landing somewhere between an old rum, a fruity cognac and a sherry-bomb Scotch. The boozy impressions are lifted by rich fruit notes - a touch of dried pineapple, a little overripe banana, rum-soaked raisins, bruised apple. The drydown is leathery and slightly woody, with a rum-barrel impression. There is also just a slight touch of barnyard in the drydown, not overpowering, but definitely preset.

The sillage is crazy. Just half a squirt is needed for all-day wear. Any more and I think l’ll get fired from work. 😬😆